Music Choices, Flooded Laptop and Dental Hygiene

9/27/13

       Currently, I am sitting at work, happily singing along to the Justin Bieber Christmas Album that my coworker is playing. I'm almost positive they have no idea that the songs are Christmas songs, but I am really enjoying singing along to them. His renditions (which I kept spelling as ramditions, and getting mad that spell check didn't understand what word I wanted, good thing I'm not an English Teacher here) of popular Christmas songs and original songs are actually pretty great. My absolute favorite though, is when I walk into the Health Department and highly explicit rap songs are playing. That really makes my day. I keep going back and forth between telling them that the songs are sexually explicit and they may not want to blare them through out the HD, but then on the other hand, I really enjoy the songs and it gives me something to sing along to with them, even though they don't understand what they are singing along to. So I will probably just say nothing and enjoy some English music being played during the day. They are also huge fans of Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull. So it's even more hilarious when we all try to sing along in Spanish to their songs. One day I hope to video record the singing madness that happens in my office.

       Yesterday, my counterpart approached me and asked if I would help him to come up with brochures about dental hygiene that will be passed out to teachers and parents of children in the community. At first he told me posters, so I got straight to work designing posters and looking up ideas on Pinterest. But then about a half hour later he came down and said that he didn't mean posters, he had a little paragraph he wrote out in English describing what we were supposed to do. We needed to make brochures/pamphlets not posters. We had to look up facts and advice to put in the pamphlets and design them. What we decided to do was to have a cover with a catchy photo and slogan and then the pages following would be: 1) What is a cavity? 2) How can you keep your teeth healthy? 3) Advice for Teachers 4) Advice for Parents 5) Diagram showing how to properly brush teeth. We decided that I would make a brochure and he would make one. We are then going to combine our ideas and make one final brochure. So that is what I am currently working on. I gave him a rough draft of mine last night to see if I was on the same page as him and doing what he had envisioned. He said it was great and that when he is done with his he will show me. One thing about Mongolians in the medical field is that they love love love statistics, facts and dry information. He told me that since the brochure is for adults that we do not need any pictures. So I then explained to him that no one will read our pamphlets if its just paragraphs of stats and facts about dental hygiene. People are more likely to read things if they are aesthetically pleasing and interesting looking. So I am interested to see what his looks like. They do the same thing with power point presentations. The slides are just full of lines and lines of sentences that the presenter reads word for word. No interesting graphs or pictures, just straight words. Hence why everyone is having side conversations and talking on their phones during them. Once I establish myself more in the Health Department, I would like to do some kind of training on this and show them how to make their presentations more interesting an interactive. I would also love to do some trainings on practices of facilitation, using surveys to receive feedback after trainings, Behavior Change Communication and Edgar Dale's Cone of Learning. I think that these would increase their effectiveness tremendously. But those will have to wait until I have gained their respect and proven myself to be successful with these techniques in my own trainings with the community. For now I am enjoying conducting surveys around the community myself and helping out in little ways around the Health Department. Currently all the Halloween party planning is taking up a lot of my time.

        The beginning of the week consisted of me spilling hot water all over my laptop and sending me into an instant terrible mood and pity party. The minute I did it, my world fell apart and I left work to see if I could salvage the computer. All I wanted to do was call my parents, but it would have been their 3am. It did cross my mind to just call anyways but after thinking about it, that was not necessary, I am an adult and need to start handling things myself (although I did call the next morning to talk about it). A great revelation, right? Haha. Thankfully I was able to, but that was after having a mini hissy fit on top of a mountain I hiked/ran up in a fit of anger. I ended up twisting my ankle half way up it, but continued to run until I reached the top, where I got out all my anger and prayed. It actually turned out to be very therapeutic and by the time I came down the mountain, my head was clearer and I decided to make progressive steps and begin to ask around about the best way of buying a new laptop. Do I take the 8-12 hour bus ride to the capital to see if there are any good ones there? Do I order from China, pay the enormous tariff on it? Or Do I buy from America and hope it gets here in one piece and makes it through customs? I got a lot of advice and decided the best option was to go to UB and my counterpart said he would drive me and help if I needed to go. He is so great! Hahaha, I am such a mess in situations like these. I do not like when things happen that I have not planned for. I like to have control and structured environment. My sister always told me that I was too uptight, and I never fully recognized it until this situation. I can only hope that my up tightness will be non existent or at least drastically reduced at the end of these two years. Because really having to buy a lap top is not the end of the world (even if I did just buy a new one 4 months ago), there are much worst things that could have happened. Luckily, none of that was needed and my computer survived and is running like normal. I will never have a liquid near it again. Lesson learned.

       This weekend we are planning on visiting the hot springs (so excited to just relax in them), going camping and hiking. I am really looking forward to it! This will be my first time really camping out in the wilderness in a tent, unless you consider sleeping in tents in Emily P's yard as camping =). I always did. Haha.

Stomach Flu, Arrests, Blanket Forts and the UN

9/19/2013

      Well I survived my first stomach virus in Mongolia. I had to take the day off from work yesterday, to lay in bed and sleep all day. I am now on meds which turn my tongue black. I look like an alien, but they really help with the pain and nausea, so it's worth it. I had been feeling off for couple weeks, but just thought it was just a cold or from lack of sleep. I came into work this morning, feeling much better, still sick, but no longer throwing up. Thank god the worst of it is over!

       Tuesday night was full of excitement, not the kind that you want though. The night ended in 4 people getting arrested in my apartment. When I came from work, I noticed that there were two large “bubbles” on my bedroom ceiling. It looked like my ceiling was caving in from water or something, so I called me counterpart and told him what I was seeing. He rushed over and his exact words were “Oh Not Good!”, I told him that they have been doing construction upstairs, so maybe that had something to do with it. He ran upstairs to talk to the construction workers, while he is up there I can hear yelling. All of a sudden, water starts pouring out of my ceiling in the kitchen now! Big bubbles start forming on that ceiling now. My counterpart runs down the stairs with a plumber and they start drilling holes in my ceiling to relieve the pressure and let the water out. My kitchen was flooded and we started quickly removing all the electronics and wires out of the water. All of a sudden there is more yelling and screaming and pounding down the stairs. The owners of the apartment and the plumbers are now in an all out brawl outside my window. 3 women and 3 men are punching each other and screaming. My counterpart runs outside to try to stop the fight, before he leaves he tells me to watch his 5 year old daughter that he had brought over. I give her a cookie and put on Little Mermaid, which she seems to enjoy. The fighting goes on for about 10-15 minutes. My counterpart then comes back into my room and says that things should be fine now and that the ceiling may leak a little bit more, but they have pumps going upstairs and they are shooting all the water out the windows (some of the pipes broke upstairs and so all the water rushed out of them while they were working on the heaters). He tells me he will be back in 30 minutes to check on me. The ceilings appear to be fine and my counterpart comes back and goes upstairs to see how the plumbers are doing, everything seems to be fine now, so he leaves telling me to call him if anything else happens. Well don't you know, 30 minutes after he leaves, another fight breaks out between the owners and plumbers, one of the plumbers is banging on my door, telling me to open up so he can check my kitchen. I let him in and then he tells me to call my mongolian friend so he can talk to him. I call my counterpart and the plumber starts yelling at him and takes my phone outside. I follow him outside, when 2 police cars drive up and the officers try to stop the fight. Everyone is yelling, calling each other drunk and lazy. A couple of the men are bleeding everywhere and then everyone starts to get arrested. My counterpart tells me he is on his way over and to get back into my apartment and lock the doors. I quickly went back into my apartment and waited for him to show up. When he does he goes upstairs to the apartment to talk with the owners. He is up there for a good 40 minutes discussing things and then comes back down and tells me my neighbors are crazy but everything is worked out and there should be no more problems. Luckily, there were no more.

9/20/2013

      Today, I had my first successful “mini-project” and what a great feeling it is! I will be celebrating this small triumph tonight for sure! This past week 12 delegates from Mongolia took part in the UN International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). Here is the press release explaining the conference:

Press Release

13^th of September 2013

Asia Pacific Population Conference Meets to Discuss the Post 2015 Agenda on International Conference on Population and Development

The UN International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994 was a turning point in the way we approach population issues. It firmly placed the needs and rights of the individual at the heart of development policies and programmes and envisioned a world where all people – women and men, young and old enjoy equal opportunities and freedoms to make choices and pursue their own life aspirations.

The Programme of Action adopted by the ICPD established a firm link between population, development and human rights, health and gender equality and set an agenda that would:

• Respond to population dynamics within a human rights framework;
• Advance gender equality and empowerment of women; „ 
• Promote sexual and reproductive health, including maternal health;
• Increase access to education, especially for girls;
• Address issues of urbanization, migration and environment;
• Ensure that everyone experiences the benefit of sustainable economic development; „ 
• Promote participation of civil society.

ICPD Beyond 2014:  Shaping a future based on rights, dignity and health

As the 20-year deadline for achieving the ICPD goals approaches, a global review of the state of population and development is underway. The review will assess achievements made since Cairo and identify outstanding issues and new challenges. It will serve to renew political support for the Programme of Action, which has been extended beyond 2014 by the UN General Assembly, and will inform the post-2015 development agenda.

As part of this process, the Sixth Asian and Pacific Population Conference (APPC) will be convened by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific, in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), from 16 to 20 September 2013 in Bangkok.  The Conference will serve as an intergovernmental platform for the Asia-Pacific preparations for the special session of the General Assembly on the International Conference on Population and Development Beyond 2014. 

On behalf of Mongolia, 12 delegates will participate in the high level Asian Pacific Population Conference, in Bangkok. These ministerial delegates and delegates from civil society organizations have an important role to play and will be push for an agenda that includes gender equality,  reproductive health rights for women, comprehensive sexuality education, and access of young people to reproductive health information and services.

        Mongolia's participation in the conference was so important, because Mongolia and a few more developed countries will be facing off against the conservative Muslim countries. The conservative Islamic states have something else in mind for the agenda (limited rights for women, sexuality, etc.). This is why Mongolia's voice is so important, yes, it has some ways to go regarding human rights itself, but we want to move forward not backward. Mongolia's delegates are pushing for an agenda that includes gender equality, reproductive health rights for women, comprehensive sexuality education, and access of young people to reproductive health information and services. It is imperative to get sexual education in schools in Mongolia. Health classes need to me established, so that the Mongolian youth have access to information dealing with sexual health, reproduction and relationships. The STD rate is as high as 50% in some areas, which could be easily prevented through the use of condoms , if the children were taught about these things. It is a large problem in my aimag and something that I am going to really focus on during my two years here.

          The reason I am going on about this conference is that Jen and I were approached to take part in a discussion with delegates from the UN, UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund). It would be a great way to get our ideas out and to here about what others are saying on these topics. What ended up taking place was a Twitter interactive session, with the UNFPA Representative and 400 delegates. The largest ever! Jen and I had gotten a group of twelve 11^th grade students together to come up with questions and concerns they wanted addressed during this session. They all were very embarrassed at first to be talking about sex and pregnancy (especially the boys), but soon they started getting into it and began to voice their opinions. Although, what they said was slightly alarming. They told me that there was no need for sexual education in schools, because they are still “babies” and do not need to know that information yet. Which is contradictory to the fact that once they graduate high school they become mothers and start families. I, at 22, should already have been married and have children according to my neighbors. But, here are 16 year olds telling me that they don't need to learn about sex and pregnancy yet. So our brainstorming of questions quickly turned into me explaining how important it is to learn about this subjects in order to keep their bodies healthy and free of disease. This is going to be my top priority, getting teachers to sit down with me and come up with a lesson plan that will delve into all these topics. I can't stress enough how important it is for the youth to become educated on sexual health and healthy relationships! I made several points to tell them that no one will know who they are, so they can feel comfortable asking any questions they have on the topic, even if they are about things that people in Mongolia don't usually talk about in public. I feel like that at the end of the hour, they felt more comfortable and started getting interested in the matter (the beginning was a little shaky). Jen and I got to put in a lot of our opinions and thoughts on the matter with the delegates and UNFPA representative, which was great. It was such an awesome thing to be involved in! There were a lot of great points made by the delegates and I feel as though Mongolia, now, has a strong grasp on the importance of sexual education and women's rights and I am so excited to see the change that comes out of that!

9/23/2013

         Friday night, I went to Jen's Ger to start making decorations for the Halloween party. Halloscream Masquerade Ball theme won. We decided that all our decorations will be made from recyclables (except we will be using spray paint on them). So Friday night, we went on the hunt for cans, bottles, wood, metal, etc around the community. So far we have made masks and lumineers with halloween cutouts from beer cans, bats from plastics soda bottles, tombstones from wood, witches hats from paper and soda bottles, spiders from melted wire ( melted and molded in Jen's Ger stove) and ghosts from plastic bags and other materials we found laying around. Everything is coming together and looking really good! It is so much fun to just sit and craft all night. We were up till 230am coming up with ideas on how to make the decorations and starting on some of them.

         Saturday night, the four of us had planned on going camping in the mountains. We rented a tent and had all our bags packed, when it started to freezing rain. For awhile, we thought we could brave the hike and still go camping, but then we realized we would be soaking wet the whole night and unable to make a fire. So, we came up with another great idea. We will camp in the tent, in Jen's Ger. We tried to set up the tent, but since it needed to be staked into the ground, it wouldn't stay up in the Ger. We then had the brilliant idea of making a fort in the Ger out of sheets and having a sleepover in it! And that is exactly what we did. We also watched the Great Gatsby, made dinner and played night crawlers. A game based off of a game in the TV show “It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia”. Basically, the game consists of people crawling around in the night on the floor of a dark room in sleeping bags likes worms. You put your head at the end of the sleeping bag where your feet usually go and then just start crawling. What happens is you start crawling and rolling on top of people, get tangled and have a lot of fun trying to get untangled and find your way around the room. Next time we do it, we are doing it at my apartment and making a maze/obstacle course around the rooms of apartment and having timed races. Oh the things you come up with when its winter in Mongolia. It was hysterical and so much fun. Next time we are going to try to record the mayhem.

        On Sunday, Will, Jen and I organized Jen's Ger. Jen and I made some very nice shelves out of scrap wood and bent nails we pulled out of the wood, which we hammered with wire cutters. They came out surprisingly well considering we had no tools. We were very proud of ourselves. I then went back to my place and organized and decorated, although I am moving out at the end of the month. I couldn't stand staring at blank walls any longer. Will and Jen then came over for dinner and we made Chicken Alfredo (so good) and watched World War Z.

         On a sad note, Gigi ran away on Friday. I am hoping she comes back, but I have not seen her since Friday afternoon, when she was frolicking around the field near my apartment. But, she was getting increasingly unhappier as the days went by, not being able to go outside. So she is probably happier now. Next time I get a cat, it needs to be a young kitten who was not used to living outside and will not want to go outside all the time.

Dried Yogurt Curd, Australians friends, and Halloween Parties Galore

9/15/13

              This morning, I hung out at Will's apartment, with him and Andrew (a PCV from a neighboring town). I brought over Gigi, which I will never be doing again, because I will have no skin left on my arms after walking the ten minute walk to his place with her in my arms. I wrapped her in a blanket and she still managed to claw my arms. But she enjoyed the change in scenery. Will taught me how to make homemade tortillas, which are super easy to make. Who knew. So far I have learned how to make french toast, fried rice and tortillas. I hope to be a good cook by the time I get out of the PC, so my future family doesn't have to live on omelets and vegetable stir fry (currently the only things I can make successfully). We then walked around town and went to the market, where I found chocolate arraul. Arraul is dried yogurt curd, it is an acquired taste, which I have to come to enjoy, and with cocoa added, it is even better. I bought a big bag of it, since it really never goes bad (it is already fermented and sour). It is a great snack. I ran to the bank as soon as I saw it, so I could buy a big bag of it. The market lady laughed when I asked her if it was really chocolate arraul and that I would be right back to buy some.

9/16/13

           Sunday evening, we went to the Australian families house for dinner and dessert. The family runs a guesthouse and cafe in town. They have been in Tsetserleg for a little over three years as Christian missionaries. They are wonderful people! They have 4 children, who are hysterical and so interesting to talk to! They go to school at Mongolian Schools for half the day and then the second half, their mom home schools them, to make sure they are keeping up with Australian standards. The eldest boy is planning on going to university in Australia next year, so he has been only home schooled for the past year to make sure he meets the requirements of the colleges he is applying to. We had homemade pizza for dinner and apple crisp and custard for dessert! So delicious. We then talked about skiing and sledding, both of which are possible here! I can not wait for the snow! I absolutely love the family and can not wait to get to know them better over these next two years. They plan on living here for another 5 years I think. Every 9 months they go back to Australia for three months so see family and friends. Their restaurant and guesthouse is a favorite of tourists, it is always full and they employ local Mongolians to run them, which is great. They also rent out mountain bikes and camping gear, which we are renting this weekend! There are great mountain bike trails and a plethora of places to camp. I can not wait.

9/17/13

           The past couple days have been so busy! This past weekend, Andrew, a PCV who lives a couple hours away from Tsetserleg came to visit. We went out to the dance club on Saturday night. The Mongolians love when we go there. Everyone wants to talk to us and dance. We met some pretty good English speakers who work as computer engineers in town and the club's manager who speaks awesome English. Jen and I have to set up a meeting with him to see if we can rent out the club for our Halloween Party we are planning for the high school students of the town. He owns a hotel here too and worked with one of the previous volunteers here on planning events for the town at his nightclub. Right now Jen and I are on the Halloween Party committee for the Special Olympics. We had to come up with the theme and decoration ideas. We came up with two great ideas and the rest of the committee is going to vote on which one they want on Friday.

            Our two themes are, Hallowscream Masquerade Ball or Zombie Apocalypse. These were our ideas for the two themes:

Suggested Ideas:

1) THE HALLOWSCREAM MASQUERADE BALL

BROOM PARKING: Which could be a coat check that we could potentially charge money for.

CUTE LITTLE SPOOKS: We could have pictures of the Down SYndrome of Mongolia events and perhaps pictures of the children if that is allowed. This could be their promotion area within the party.

CAUGHT IN A WEB OF FRIENDS: This would be the backdrop for pictures. We could use toilet paper as a spiders web. Cut outs of the moon, glow in the dark starts (Brittany has) and we could do cutouts of black cats, and spiders. We could also utilize a prop table where we could have broomsticks, hats, masks, another other tidbits that people may have lying around. We could also potentially charge for printouts of pictures.

MONSTER MASKS: We could have a table where people could create their own masks out of paper plates and string.  Markers, scraps of paper, shiny paper...glue...Pretty much anything we have or can find CHEAP which is the name of the game.

We were also thinking that if there was a way to get sponsorship from companies around the area...even having them invest 5000 or 10000 t, We would be able to easily get the materials we need and we could make signs with their names to promote their company around the room...

We can also decorate with recycled jars and cans. We can place candles in them...do halloween cutouts with the cans that go over the jars for decorations. We can hand black and orange balloons, and decorate doors with cutouts of monsters like frankenstein witches, mummies.

2) Name: ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

ARM CHECK: Coat Check, same idea

WALKING DEAD: We could make a section with this heading for pictures. The backdrop could be fake trees, the prop table, chains, torn clothing with "blood" stains, if allowed, hammers, shovels, things zombies would carry. Gravestones. Also, we could have paper machee heads.

DEAD YOURSELF: We could have a ZOMBIE face-painting and hair-styling area.  

CUTE LITTLE SPOOKS: Same idea as we described in the other email we wrote!

DECORATIONS: I have wood that we could make gravestones with. We could hang pants upside down stuffed with newspapers. We could also hang gloves. Pretty much any article of clothing that looks like it's been cut off from the body. We can also ask some kiddos here to show us how to make paper machee heads:-)

          On Friday they will vote between the two. Not only are we planning this party, we are also planning parties for K-4 grades. 5-8 grades and high school students. For these parties, the two younger groups will have parties at the school, where we will have games, music and a costume parade, the high school students will have a Halloween Dance at the Nightclub. Jen and I have been meeting with teachers and community members to plan the parties. We have so many ideas and everyone seems very enthusiastic about the parties!

        Another project we have been working on, is starting up an English Club in School 1, where we would teach English, help with homework and watch American movies. One of the English teacher's at the school expressed the need for beginner English books and to start an English library at the school. So we are going to look for companies and grants to get books sent to the school for the students to use. Currently, the only books they have in the school, are the books teachers buy with their own money and lend out to the students to practice with. I also set up a pen pal program with a teacher in Philadelphia at the Science Leadership Academy through the Coverdall World Wise School Correspondence program, so we are going to incorporate this into on English Club. Also, I plan on doing a similar program with Corinth Elementary School. The Mongolian students and teachers are really excited to speak with American students! We are going to start our English Club in October.

          After meeting with the school doctor, social worker and Dorm teacher at a local school, I have seen the need for Health Classes in schools and in the dorms. So I am going to come up with a health curriculum for the schools. Currently, there are no health classes going on in school and with all the young teenage pregnancies in Mongolia, I think that it is very important to have Sex Education in the schools, as well as nutrition, body image, fitness ad hygiene classes. Today, I went to the World Visions Headquarters in Tsetserleg and spoke with the Health Education Training Manager and she said that she would love to work with me. She wants to come up with ideas and trainings for the schools and community, so she will be a great help when I start planning my trainings for the schools! I also me with the Director of their Child Sponsorship Program. She asked if I would help her translate the letters from the Mongolian children to their sponsor families. I ended up helping her with four of them today. The sponsorship program is where orphaned and poor children are matched up with Korean families, who send the children money and gifts. Every month the child and Korean family send letters to each other, so her job is to translate the letters from the families into Mongolian, so the child can read them and then translate the child's letter from Mongolian into English, so they can be sent to the Korean families. It's a wonderful program and I am so excited to be helping out with it.

           Starting next week, I will be tutoring a local business man in English. He speaks well, but wants someone to practice conversations with, so I told him I could help him, if he helps me with my Mongolian. We are going to start meeting at my work on Tuesdays and Thursdays to practice. I am also tutoring an 11^th grader, who came up to me while I was touring one of the school and asked if I could help her with her English speaking skill. Her mom works as a statistician for the Health Department. I'm looking forward to helping them and really looking forward to improving my own Mongolian skills.

         Tomorrow, Jen and I plan on visiting the remaining three schools on our list and the local University, to talk about our Halloween party and starting to teach health and life skills courses at the schools. Jen is my site mate, who is a social worker and works with one of the school social workers in town, so a lot of our projects are going to be done together, which is awesome. We both have the same ideas as to what we want to do in the community and work well together. Thursday, we are visiting the Education Center, the Governor's office and revisiting FLOM. Finally making moves!

Vodka at 11am ,Blonde Hair and Writing Letters to Korean Organizations

9/13/13

        This week as been pretty low key. I've been doing a lot of translating reports still and looking for organizations to partner with and possible places to get grants from to start some of the projects I have in mind. At work on Wednesday we had a luncheon. We had potato salad and“ham” which is really just processed meat that is the consistency of bologna with fat chunks throughout it in a big sausage like shape. There were also apples, candies and cakes for dessert. To drink, we started out with my favorite Milk-Tea and then proceeded to have vodka and wine. Mind you this is 11am. Luckily, we just passed out the shot of vodka 3 times and everyone just had to sip it, not take the whole shot. Then with our dessert we passed around glasses of wine and did the same thing. Somewhere between taking the shots of vodka and wine, they realized that my face did not scrunch up in disgust after taking the sip of wine. They interpreted this as I must really love wine and insisted I drink a tall glass of it. For the rest of the luncheon I sat there sipping on my wine, by the time I left there was still more than half of the glass left full of wine. During the luncheon, I hear my name a couple times and they kept staring over at me during their conversations, but unless someone is directly speaking at me in a semi-slow pace, I can't understand a word that is being said. So I just sat there smiling and trying to make little comments to the people sitting next to me. All I remember saying was when asked my drink preference, that I don't like beer, I like vodka a little bit and I like wine. Also, they asked if my hair color was real and if it was okay that I had yellow hair. I said yes I was born with “yellow” hair and that a lot of people in the US have my color hair and its okay. Not sure where they were going when they asked if it was okay to have blonde hair. Haha

       Last night, I played volleyball again with the teachers at School 4, more like watched them play. This weekend they have student sports day so they were all practicing for it and took it very seriously. Ten minutes into the game I was benched because I couldn't set the ball properly for the volleyball coach to spike. I didn't see why he should always spike it every time, so I would hit it over the net every now and then to ease my boredom, well soon after I was benched for the rest of the game. Luckily, my health department doesn't take our games so seriously and lets me play the whole game whether I set well or not.

      After volleyball Lori and I planned on doing our 5^th day of Insanity, but I got a desperate call from my counterpart Aruika asking if I could meet with him at 8pm he needed help writing and translating a proposal that was do in the morning. Gotta love Mongolians time management skills. I fully tend to have a training with my company on the importance of time management this month. Anyways, he came to my apartment at 9pm, not 8pm. Mongolian time is different then real life time, 8pm really means 9/930pm, another training I'd like to do : The Importance of being on time or just being truthful about what time things will actually be taking place. So here I was at 9pm reading through emails the health department has received from the Korean government and various other Central Asia Region Countries' health departments. The task: write a letter to the Korean NGO MediPeace thanking them for our invitation and the opportunity to travel to Korea for this conference in which our Health Department Director will be representing all of Mongolia's Health Departments. A Pretty Big Deal, yet we still wait till the last hour to send this email in which all the other countries had sent a week ago. The format of the letter was supposed to be this (according to the examples I read from the other countries involved in the conference): 1) Thank MediPeace for the invitation and opportunity 2) tell them about the history of your health department and about the Public Health sector in your country 3) How you think you can benefit from the conference and what you hope to gain 4) How this will help you in the future and how you will implement your new country relationships. Seems like an easy task, but my counterpart did not understand what to do, since the email was in English and he has had 1 beer to drink. 1 beer. So I try to break it down into smaller sentences of bullet points to show him what he needs to write. He still doesn't know, so I start to ask him questions in Monglish (a mix of english and mongolian words) about the Public Health sector in Mongolia (What are its goals? What are the major concerns? What are some projects in place to combat these concerns?); I soon realize that I will be the one writing this formal letter to Korea, me, who has been here for less than a month, will be writing the letter to the Korean Government about a conference I know nothing about. Luckily, he has brought the conference agenda and schedule so I look over some main points and come up with what I thought was a pretty great letter explaining how thankful we are and how this opportunity to discuss challenges that we face as a country with other Central Asian Countries will help us overcome the challenges we face as third world countries. The opportunity to gain knowledge and practices from countries like Korea is invaluable and we hope to form lasting strong relationships with the other countries involved..etc... Ariuka does help out in the statistics area and provides me with some numbers about morbidity and mortality of infectious and non infectious diseases in the country.

         At about 10pm the letter was done and Lori and I finally got to do our workout and then had dinner at 11pm. We made sure the dinner was only protein, so that our bodies would still use it during sleep and now store it like it would if we had eaten carbs. Our dinner consisted of eggs and milk. This had been the first time I had drank straight milk, not almond or soy milk, in years! It was whole goats milk and I still took my precautionary Lactaid Pill before drinking it, but it was surprisingly delicious. Since it was so late and it is dangerous to walk at night (Ariuka made sure to point this out when he left and to tell Lori about the story of how he saw me walking at midnight with a man alone, the man was Will, my other site mate, and we were walking back from dropping Lori off at her Ger, and then he was walking me home; but Ariuka didn't understand that the man was walking me home so I wouldn't be walking home alone, he still thinks that “the man” walking me home was up to something haha), Lori stayed the night and we watched the first episode of the first season of “Friends”, it was hilarious and they were all so young.

Volleyball, Sunset Hikes and Lots and lots of laundry.

9/5/13

        Every Wednesday and Thursday I have been playing volleyball after work. On Wednesdays we play at Lori's school with the teachers at her school and on Thursdays we play at the sports center with my Health Department coworkers. In a couple weeks, Wills school has sports day on Fridays, so we will be playing volleyball or basketball with the teachers from the college he works at. It is so much fun! I am going to be a pro volleyball player by the end of these 27 months.

         After volleyball on Thursday Will, Lori and I went on a sunset hike. We hiked up one of the small mountains around 730pm and at the top we watched the sunset and sat around for a couple hours chatting about our plans for the next couple weeks. It was so beautiful and peaceful! You could see so many stars and all the fires from the gers were glowing against the night backdrop. We then put on our headlamps, took out our flashlights and hiked back down the mountain. We want to do it again, only go up earlier, make a fire, cook dinner and watch the sunset and then layout and look at the stars. Since there is no street lights or large buildings, the stars are so bright! I am able to find the big and little dipper every night with ease, as well as various other constellations that I can't remember the names of that Mike showed us when he visited.

         On another note, Gigi (my cat) has decided she will only eat fish now. She will not touch the chicken I give her, so in order to use up all the chicken pate I bought for her, I had to buy sardines to mix in with it. She eats the pate as long as there is fish mixed in with it. Crazy cat. So because the chicken pate is so cheap, I am going to keep buying I and just mixing in some sardines with it, which are way more expensive. We will see how long I can trick her into eating the chicken. Also, I realized I never explained why I named her Gigi. Her real name is жижиг машин (ji-jeek machine), which means little automobile. I found her under a car in a puddle while walking to my friend's house, so i named her little car, plus she was a street cat, so I thought she should have a rapper name, like Lil' Wayne/Lil' BowWow..so she got the name Lil' Car. She is so full of energy all the time, but at night she lays in bed with me and sleeps curled up next to my neck (she rests her head on my neck under my chin..so cute!), or when she is cold, she goes under the blankets and sleeps next to my legs. I keep calling her Mayble (my cat back home) though. I'm so used to saying Mayble, that it just comes out whenever I call her.

9/8/2013

         Today, Lori and I started Day 1 of the Insanity workouts. Every day after work we are going to do them, since the snow is supposed to start tomorrow, running is going to become difficult!! Yikes! My neighbor came over and asked me to stop the noise, I assume the noise he was referring to was the pounding of us jumping during the work out. So I am going to ask my director if we can use the exercise room in the Health Department to do our work outs in the evenings. Maybe some of my coworkers will join in! I have been wanting to start doing Zumba work outs there with some of the ladies I work with. Maybe I can start up an exercise club! Everyday when we arrive at work, we do 15 minutes of stretching to get our blood pumping for the day.

          Last night, Lori and I went out to eat at this little hole in the wall restaurant. I'm 100% sure it would not pass a building inspection or a health/sanitation inspection in the US, but it has the most delicious Mongolian food for so cheap. After dinner, we met up with Will and went to Lori's ger to watch scary movies by her fire. We watched Saw 3. When I first got to her Ger, her hasha mother (a hasha family is the family who owns the property her Ger is on) brought in her younger brother, who is an OBGYN at the hospital here. He heard I was visiting Lori, and wanted to talk (and talk we did, for about 2 hours). He asked if I would teach to the doctors at the hospital. I said of course and that I would get back to him this week with a schedule of classes I could do with them. He has been teaching himself English through textbooks, which is amazing to me. If I had tried to learn Mongolian through just a text book, it would have never happened. He also taught himself Korean. Mongolians amaze me with their drive to learn new languages and cultures. They are so dedicated and their schools really stress the importance of language. I wish that US schools emphasized language more. Here in Mongolia in elementary school they begin studying Mongolian and Russian and then once they hit 5^th grade they add English into the mix. Except most of the Mongolian English teachers don't know English well themselves, so by the time they are graduating high school, they are still at an elementary level English, which is why Mongolians jump at the chance to learn English from a native English speaker.

           I also did some more laundry today. I don't know why I waited so long to do laundry. I have been doing laundry for an hour each day, for the past 3 days and am only half way through my dirty clothes. I am never waiting that long again to do it. I have blisters from washing so much clothes by hand. I need to by rubber gloves.

9/9/13

           It is freezing out today!! I had to plug in one of my space heaters while getting ready today in the bathroom because it was so cold I could not bare to get out of bed. Half way through putting my make up on, I started to smell smoke so I went into the entry way where the space heater was plugged in and smoke was pouring out of the electrical socket. Somehow the plug melted and then started burning. I will never use that socket again or that space heater. Luckily, I have two, so hopefully the next one doesn't burn! I was scared to leave the house this morning, in fear that there was a fire in the wall, but I kept feeling the wall for heat and there was known, so here's hoping I go back on lunch and the place is still standing!

          This morning I established that I will be teaching English to the employees at the Health Department on Wednesdays at 4pm. I'm excited for that to start, I think it will help me gain stronger relationships with everyone here.

Refrigerators,World Vision and Spa Day

8/27/13

      I got a refrigerator last night! I am so excited to be able to buy eggs, yogurt and chicken now! My co-worker and his friend brought it over last night. So now I have running water and a refrigerator, the next thing I get is hopefully hot water! My hot water heater in the shower is broken, so I have been taking ice cold showers, they are so cold that I literally get brain freezes. So I try to go running or exercise before I take one, so it won't seem so cold. But I would really love to have it up and running before winter hits. Yesterday, we went out to dinner at a Korean Restaurant, it was delicious. I had this spicy soup that reminded me of Ramen Noodles.

8/29/13

       Well this week has been more productive then last week work wise. I have been bust translating documents into English and proof reading my one of my co-worker's translations of a document for WHO. I also managed to hand out my surveys and am now just waiting to get them all returned, I have gotten 2 back so far. My task for the weekend is to translate them with the help of one of my Mongolian friends, since the answers are in Cyrillic script, and I only know how to read the print form. Next time I must ask them to print their answers.

8/30/13

       Today, the health Department hosted a training for different Health Organizations in our Aimag. The training was put on by World Vision (I would love to work for them in the future!) World Vision is one of the world’s leading humanitarian organizations. Their goals for the countries they work in are: 1) emergency relief to victims of natural or man-made disasters; 2) long-term sustainable community development focusing on clean water, education, health care, agricultural improvements and sanitation; and 3) working with policymakers to build awareness around poverty and to address the unjust systems that help perpetuate it (http://www.wvi.org). I have a meeting with the Director Of World Visions in Mongolia this week, to see what I can do to help with their projects here in my Aimag.

         Today's training was on water sanitation. I learned that Arkhangai has the dirtiest water in Mongolia. The water contains E.coli and various other contaminants that are detrimental to the health of the citizens of my Aimag. Water filters are expensive and people need more water safety education. World Vision is trying to come up with new piping systems and water sources to help combat the problem. I would love to help out on this project! It seems that people in my Aimag do not utilize rain water. It rains a lot here in the summer, at would be an easy way for people in the Soums and Ger districts to have access to more water, which they could then boil and drink and use for cooking. This is something I am going to research more and perhaps make a project proposal on.

        Another project I am interested in starting is a series of helmet safety trainings for the community. Everyone rides motorcycles, and no one wears a helmet. I want to right to a couple organizations for grants and see if different organizations will donate helmets, that could be given out to community members once they complete the helmet safety course. Another volunteer a couple hours away from me, also asked if I would come up with a Health Training curriculum that I could travel to his Soum and do for dorm students on sexual health and fitness.

         I also want to do some kind of project dealing with Mental Disabilities and Mental Health. Best Buddies International is starting up a best Buddies Program in Mongolia. They are in the early stages of development, but I really want to be involved. Mental illness and Mental Disabilities have such a stigma here. They believe that if you have a child with a mental disability, its because you did something wrong in a previous life/bad karma. These children do not go to school and in a lot of cases, never leave their house. I really want to do something to combat the stigmas and teach young people about.

        Back to the training, I ended up being 10 minutes late to the World Vision training, do to being told about the meeting at the last minute, so I rushed up the stairs to sit in on it. I get to my seat and put my tea down, which then spills all over the floor! So embarrassing. It made a huge mess. All the Mongolians turned around and laughed. I sat down quickly, cursing my clumsiness. But I soon realized that my small disturbance was nothing compared to how Mongolians act during meetings/trainings. They answer their phones in the middle of meetings and conduct conversations, children visit their parents asking for money, and side conversations happen through out the meeting. The training was in all Mongolian, so I didn't understand a lot, but my counterpart was able to translate the main ideas to me in English. We were given trail mix, cookies and Aloe juice through out the training, such a nice surprise! I also got a really nice leather bound notebook and pen. World Vision then paid for everyone's lunch at a local restaurant, which I couldn't go to, because my plumber decided to show up at my apartment at that exact time. I have no idea what he did for two hours, because I still have no hot water and my toilet still does not flush. But I am moving out of the apartment at the end of this month into a new one, so hopefully that one will have the basic amenities this one lacks.

9/2/2013

        Friday night, we all went to Will's to hang out. We were going to go to Karaoke but realized Friday are dry days in our Aimag, so clubs and bars are closed. So instead of Karaoke, we danced around Will's apartment and just hung out. Saturday morning I went for a great run through the mountains on the mountain biking paths. It was absolutely beautiful and at one point I found myself running through herds of cows, horses and yaks. We made brunch (Kegs and Eggs) at Will's. I learned how to make French Toast and it turned out spectacular. We also had eggs, home fries, “bacon”, which was actually just pork chunks and hillbilly mimosas (beermosas), which is orange juice and beer mixed together (pretty delicious actually). After brunch, we decided to have Spa Day. We did face masks, hair conditioner treatments and manicures. Yes, Will joined in. He reluctantly wore a face mask and we trimmed his nails and removed his cuticles. Haha. Then Lori, Jen and I took turns using his shower (hot water). This is going to be our new Saturday morning tradition. Saturday night, we met our Mongolian friend Urtaa out at a dance club. So much fun! There was a Mongolian woman there who has doing cartwheels and dancing so enthusiastically to every song. I have never witnessed anything like it. Mongolians love dancing with us at the clubs. The cartwheeling lady told me that I was the most beautiful dancer she has ever seen. I thanked her and her husband kept giving me the thumbs up.

             Sunday afternoon I met with the Director of School 1 (a school near my house) and drank Airag (fermentated mare's milk) for the first time. It has a very interesting taste, I do not care for it. The director wants me to work with the Physical Education teachers, so once school picks up I need to set up a time to meet with the teachers and see what I can help out with. We all went to Jen's and watched “He's Just Not That Into You” and “ The Killers”. Poor Will is always stuck with chick flicks. After the movies we went shopping at the market for food and I went home to play with GiGi, my cat. She is hysterical. I love her so much! I now feed her chicken or rice with fish mixed in. She seems to love both. She has so much energy and always wants to play. She reminds me of my cat back home, Mayble. GiGi loves to play fetch just like Mayble. It's hilarious.